Jack Chambers - by Dennis Reid (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Published to coincide with a major exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Jack Chambers: Light, Spirit, Time, Place and Life is the first major volume to be published on the work of Jack Chambers, one of Canada's most recognized and broadly influential artists. Featuring a selection of some 100 works including paintings, drawings, prints, and films, and materials from the artist's extensive papers, the book focuses on Chambers's own unique brand of "perceptive realism," his use of light, place, time, and spirit, all of which were central to his work.

A brilliant draughtsman and remarkable painter, Chambers spend his early adulthood travelling and studying in Europe, where he met Pablo Picasso. When he returned to his hometown of London, Ontario, in 1961, he found himself at the centre of a vibrant art scene that would become the backdrop for his films and the surrealist-influenced works based on his dream-like evocations of memory.

This book draws on the large collection of the artist's work held by the AGO. Featuring more than 100 colour reproductions, an extensive chronology, and a complete catalogue of the AGO's collection of Chambers's artworks, the volume also includes critical essays by Sarah Milroy, Christopher Dewdney, Mark Cheetham, Gillian Mackay, Ross Woodman and curator-writer Dennis Reid, as well as unique personal reflections in a variety forms by writers Michael Ondaatje and Susan Crean, and painters John Scott and Eric Fischl.

From the Back Cover

Jack Chambers was an artist of deep feeling and conviction. A founder of Canadian Artists' Representation, a filmmaker who created dreamlike explorations of consciousness and a painter who believed in the sanctity of sight, he lived an intensely affirmative life. In Jack Chambers: Light, Spirit, Time, Place and Life, Dennis Reid and his team of curator-writers bring the artist's sensibility and his world view into focus, grouping works of all media into threads that highlight ways of seeing and of being present in the world.

A brilliant draughtsman and remarkable painter, Jack Chambers spent his early adulthood travelling and studying in Europe. When he returned to his hometown of London, Ontario, in 1961, he found himself at the centre of a vibrant arts scene that would become the backdrop for his films and surrealist-influenced works based on dream-like evocations of memory. There was also, in Chambers, a little bit of the mystic who believed he could see beyond the surface of things. To enter into the world presented by this book is to enter a space of reflection, where seeing is heightened and the world around us, painting by dreamlike painting and drawing by radiant drawing, becomes truly luminous.

In this unprecedented book, Dennis Reid has gathered together several writers to document various ideas in Chambers's work. Each essayist has looked at a sensation or connecting presence to explore an idea that sits as intertwining thread through the whole of Chambers's short career. Each have approached their subject with a combination of long-standing interest in the artist, acute fascination with a moment in Chambers's career and sensitivity to the particularities of his art. Together, they provide profound insight into the artist and his defining artistic processes. Essayists featured in Jack Chambers: Light, Spirit, Time, Place and Life include art critic Sarah Milroy, celebrated poet and art writer Christopher Dewdney, journalist Gillian MacKay, literary scholar Ross Woodman and art historian Mark Cheetham. Writers Michael Ondaatje and Susan Crean and painters John Scott and Eric Fischl have also contributed personal reflections in a variety of forms. Rounding out the book is an introductory essay on Jack Chambers -- the man, his life and his practice -- by editor-curator-writer Dennis Reid. Jack Chambers: Light, Spirit, Time, Place and Life is the first major publication on the work on one of Canada's most recognized and broadly influential artists. Drawing on the large collection of the artist's work held by the Art Gallery of Ontario, it features more than a hundred colour plates, an extensive chronology and a complete catalogue of the works held by the AGO.

About the Author

Dennis Reid is a professor of art history at the University of Toronto, where he has taught since 1977. He also worked at the Art Gallery of Ontario from 1979 until 2010, latterly as director of collections and research, and at the National Gallery of Canada from 1967, principally as curator of Post-Confederation Canadian Art (1971 to 1979). The author of numerous publications on Canadian art, including A Concise History of Canadian Painting (third edition forthcoming), he became a Member of the Order of Canada in 1998.